Chapter 14
As the absolute lockdown protocol engaged, piercing klaxons echoed throughout the estate. The heavy steel blast doors slammed down, sealing off every possible exit. Marcus and his surviving hitmen were now trapped inside the massive, opulent main foyer, unable to advance or retreat.
From the isolated security hub, Ryan activated the mansion’s internal public address system. His voice, amplified and terrifyingly hollow, rained down on the traitors below. "Marcus. Did you really think you could outsmart me? Fifteen years we called each other brothers, and you sold me out to the Falcones?"
Down in the foyer, Marcus leaned against a marble table, clutching his bleeding shoulder. He snatched a walkie-talkie from a guard to broadcast back to the PA system. "They never died, Ryan!" Marcus yelled, his voice echoing with bitter resentment. "You went soft! Ever since you married Emily and had Lily, you lost your edge. You aren't the monster you used to be. I had to secure the future of this syndicate!"
"Is that why you tracked Maria down in upstate New York?" Ryan’s voice dropped to a terrifying, deadly calm. "Did you kill her?"
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Marcus’s cruel laughter blasted through the speakers. "Yeah! I watched her bleed out. And I brought the brat back, stuffed her right inside your own walls. You slept soundly in your million-dollar bed while your own flesh and blood starved to death a few feet away. Your legendary awareness is a joke!"
In the darkness of the control room, Ryan gripped the edge of the steel desk so hard the metal began to bend. The threatening letter with the unfamiliar scrawl now made perfect, sickening sense. "You made one fatal mistake, Marcus," Ryan whispered into the microphone, his flat tone promising absolute devastation. "Stay right there. I am coming down."
